VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski said that some of the top regional criminals who were given Macedonian passports by the Zaev regime used them to reside in the country or frequently travel from the Skopje airport. These included Turkish mobster Sedat Peker, who was given an identity card in early 2021, and a top member of the Serbian Shkaljarski gang Jovan Vukotic.

This is not a serious country if it allows criminals like Sedat Peker to stay in Macedonia for three months, to throw parties, take pictures with SDSM coalition partners, and not fear arrest. He moved freely across the country and functioned normally, which means that he was protected by top officials of the Government. Vukotic himself said that he had a legitimate passport, with all of his actual data, except the name. The passports were not withdrawn or destroyed and there is no condemnation of the scandal from the Prime Minister, which only shows who ordered this entire affair. While the Government remains silent, the holders of the falsified passports continue to use them unobstructed. It only shows how devastated the security system in Macedonia really is, Mickoski said.

The Interior Ministry insists that only low level clerks were involved in the scandal, in which over 200 passports were issued under assumed identities, including to ISIS members, regional and European criminals and hitmen. The alleged head of the group, Interior Ministry official Raif Miftari, fled the country – likely to Kosovo. A total of 11 Ministry clerks, including Miftari, are charged, and seven of them are detained over the scandal.